Monday, March 29, 2010

Google Adwords: Writing Compelling Ads

Google Adwords remains as the premier paid traffic source in the internet today, and any business can setup and run ads on the Adwords network within hours. However, you are limited to just 35 text characters per line so you have to type in a specific manner to get favorable results. You just need to learn how to write ads specifically for Ad words in order to profit from it.

A whole science has emerged around writing effective adwords ads and knowing what to right in each line is just a part of it. If you're totally new with Adwords, here's a strategy you can use to base your first ad on.

1. Use the keyword in the headline. Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd, authors of "The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords" state that internet users are more likely to click on an ad if the ad's title or headline contains the keyword or keyphrase they were searching on. Use this to your advantage and capture people's attention instantly.

2. State a benefit in the second line. People are more likely to respond and click an ad if the ad clearly states a benefit near the title. Make sure you are listing your benefit on the second line, not your offer or a feature. Think in terms of 'giving them what they want' first before stating your product's attributes.

3. State a feature or offer on the third line. Your features and offers must support your benefit statement. The idea here is to state your feature or offer in such a way as to back your benefit claim. Remember to keep your feature or offer brief and simple so as not to overpower your benefit.

4. Place your landing page URL in the last line. Many companies make the mistake of inserting only their website URL on the last line, but you have the freedom to enter in any destination you want in this area. This is a great reason to set up a separate landing page specifically for your Adwords campaign; this landing page URL can be inserted into every ad you run so you can track how well your ad is performing.

5. Split-test your Ads. Split-testing means running two similar ads at the same time to see which one will gather more clicks. Make small changes in your ads and see which version will perform better.

Setting up your Google Adwords campaign for the first time can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn't take long to understand all of the elements of Google Adwords and creating compelling and persuasive ads. Remember to track your performance always so that you can pinpoint areas for improvement. In any case, don't delay your usage of Google adwords and follow these tips to start running ads now.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

How to Measure the Effects of PPC Marketing

Pay per click advertising is a vital internet marketing tool, yet how can you measure the results of PPC marketing strategies? With basic understanding of SEO and PPC plus the use of web analytic tools, you can measure the effectiveness of your Pay per click campaign. Here is the process to learn so that you can know how effective your PPC campaign really is:

1. PPC has to be integrated with web analytics tool. The author of "Web Analytics: An Hour a Day", Avinash Kaushik, adviced the use of many web analytic tools and to incorporate the PPC data into it so that its effectiveness can be measured. Kaushik specified that access to the backed of web analytics tools is vital to know what is happening behind the scenes (instead of hiring an SEM service for this task).

2. Define your key performance indicators. The next question you need to answer is what exactly generates a 'sale' for you? Is it the click to a sales page (a lead capture)? Is it the payment and transaction itself? Defining what is the performance indicator for your particular campaign will help you narrow down your focus and track user behavior that is getting the conversions you need.

3. Keep track of your unique visitors. Unique visitor counts will vary significantly by campaign, and you will need to know exactly how much it cost to attract these visitors, even if they didn't complete a purchase or submit their information. The reason why this is important is because you need to know if the campaign is working. If people are only clicking through to the site but not converting, you may be targeting the wrong keywords.

4. Apply a split test. Online marketers have a technique known as a split test that can identify what are keywords or keyphrases that are bring them the maximum conversions in their respective target markets. A split test can be conducted by running the same advertisement using three different ad service providers at the same time. This will enable your to track clicks, see from where the most clicks are coming from, and pinpoint how your target market finds your website. This data is used to decide which ad service provider will be retained exclusively based on the highest yielding return.

5. Know the cost of each acquisition. When you know how many visitors your website has and how many of them actually generate you income, you can accurately compute the individual acquisition cost of your campaign. This will tell you exactly how much you have spent to get a sale. Then, you can calculate the average selling price and study your ROI.

Measuring the effectiveness of your pay per click marketing strategy can take time and you will need to tweak it as you go along. Still, it's a process that every savvy marketer needs to go through in order to optimize their ads and get the highest conversions from each and every campaign.